Search results for "ECs"
showing 10 items of 2721 documents
School grading and institutional contexts
2011
We study how the relationship between students' cognitive ability and their school grades depends on institutional contexts. In a simple abstract model, we show that unless competence standards are set at above-school level or the variation of competence across schools is low, students' competence valuation will be heterogeneous, with weaker schools inflating grades or flattening their dependence on competence, therefore reducing the information content and comparability of school grades. Using data from the OECD-PISA 2003 Survey, the model is applied to a sample of four countries, namely Australia, Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands. We find that in Australia, schools' heterogeneity does …
Adam Smith on Monopoly Theory. Making good a lacuna
2014
This article analyses Adam Smith's views on monopoly by focusing on Book IV and V of The Wealth of Nations. It argues that the majority of scholars have assessed Smith's analysis of monopoly starting from premises different from those, actually though implicitly, used by Smith. We show that Smith makes use of the word 'monopoly' to refer to a heterogeneous collection of market outcomes, besides that of a single seller market, and that Smith's account of monopolists' behaviour is richer than that provided by later theorists. We also show that Smith was aware of the growth-retarding effect of monopoly and urged State regulation. © 2014 Scottish Economic Society.
Do firms share the same functional form of their growth rate distribution? A statistical test
2014
We introduce a new statistical test of the hypothesis that a balanced panel of firms have the same growth rate distribution or, more generally, that they share the same functional form of growth rate distribution. We applied the test to European Union and US publicly quoted manufacturing firms data, considering functional forms belonging to the Subbotin family of distributions. While our hypotheses are rejected for the vast majority of sets at the sector level, we cannot rejected them at the subsector level, indicating that homogenous panels of firms could be described by a common functional form of growth rate distribution.
Sovereign Credit Ratings and Financial Markets Linkages: Application to European Data
2012
We use EU sovereign bond yield and CDS spreads daily data to carry out an event study analysis on the reaction of government yield spreads before and after announcements from rating agencies (Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, Fitch). Our results show significant responses of government bond yield spreads to changes in rating notations and outlook, particularly in the case of negative announcements. Announcements are not anticipated at 1–2 months horizon but there is bi-directional causality between ratings and spreads within 1–2 weeks; spillover effects especially among EMU countries and from lower rated countries to higher rated countries; and persistence effects for recently downgraded countrie…
GDP clustering: A reappraisal
2012
Abstract This note explores clustering in cross country GDP per capita using recently developed model based clustering methods for panel data. Previous research characterizing the components of the overall distribution of output either use ad hoc methods, or methods which ignore/subvert the panel nature of the data. These new methods allow the characterization of the possible autoregressive relationship of output between time points. We show that traditional static clustering decade by decade gives mixed results regarding clustering over time, while the application of longitudinal mixtures presents three distinct clusters at all periods of time.
On the severity of economic downturns: Lessons from cross-country evidence
2012
Abstract We measure the severity of recessions as a function of their amplitude and duration. Within a quantile regression framework, we assess what causes economic downturns to be more or less severe. We find that the most severe downturns have striking similarities regarding cumulated domestic credit and large current account deficits.
Investment–productivity dynamics and distribution dynamics in a multisector economy: some theory and an application to Italian regions
2003
Abstract In this paper, we study the investment–productivity dynamics in the Framework Space, presented by Bohm and Punzo [Cycles, Growth and Structural Change, Routledge, London (2001) 47], as the distribution dynamics of the production sectors of an economy. We apply such theoretical framework to data from Italian regions to identify differences in sectoral behaviors both within and across regions. Our main findings are: sectors within a region generally follow different regime dynamics; Southern Italian regions are generally characterized by higher degrees of heterogeneity in sectoral growth behaviors and of regime instability. Also, we find support to the hypothesis of a positive relati…
CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE: A NEW APPROACH, NEW DATA, AND NEW RESULTS
2020
Recently, Penn World Tables include new data that enable calculation of total factor productivity in addition to output for a large set of countries. We use these new data to examine convergence and divergence across countries by applying a new approach, which differentiates between the dynamics of output and of productivity. Our empirical results lead to two main new contributions to the literature. The first is on the interpretation of “β-convergence” in “growth regressions.” It means that output per worker in each country converges to productivity but does not imply convergence across countries, since productivity tends to diverge from the global frontier. The second contribution is to t…
Selection bias, incentivi alle imprese e sviluppo locale: Una valutazione ex-post
2015
Questo lavoro si concentra sulla valutazione di un programma di aiuti alle imprese facente parte di un piu vasto programma per lo sviluppo locale realizzato in Italia durante il ciclo di programmazione comunitaria 2000-2006. Esso costituisce un approfondimento di una precedente analisi (Cusimano, Mazzola, 2014) di valutazione ex-post degli effetti dei regimi di aiuto previsti nell’ambito dei progetti integrati territoriali (pit), e mira ad identificare l’eventuale presenza di distorsione da selezione (selection bias) nella quantificazione dell’efficacia della politica. Mediante un’analisi empirica effettuata per mezzo di diverse metodologie basate sul propensity score matching (psm) viene m…
Nonlinearity in intergenerational income transmission: A cross-country analysis
2016
Abstract The aim of this paper is to explore nonlinearity in intergenerational income transmission. We use a set of occupational tables in different countries to test nonlinearity. We also empirically address how policy variables can affect nonlinearity. Our findings suggest that concavity is supported in those societies with less credit constraints, but with more poverty and income inequality; education has an increasing effect on convexity.